Theme of 2017 International Open Access Week to be “Open in order to…”

In conjunction with this year’s Open Access Week Advisory Committee, SPARC today announces the theme for this year’s 10th International Open Access Week, to be held October 23-29, will be “Open in order to…”.

This year’s theme is an invitation to answer the question of what concrete benefits can be realized by making scholarly outputs openly available. “Open in order to…” serves as a prompt to move beyond talking about openness in itself and focus on what openness enables—in an individual discipline, at a particular institution, or in a specific context; then to take action to realize these benefits.

Open in order to increase the impact of my scholarship. Open in order to enable more equitable participation in research. Open in order to improve public health. These are just a few examples of how this question can be answered.

Established by SPARC and partners in the student community in 2008, International Open Access Week is an opportunity to take action in making openness the default for research—to raise the visibility of scholarship, accelerate research, and turn breakthroughs into better lives. This year’s Open Access Week will be held from October 23rd through the 29th; however, those celebrating the week are encouraged to schedule local events whenever is most suitable during the year and to utilize themes that are most effective locally.

This year’s theme of “Open in order to…” also recognizes the diverse contexts and communities within which the shift to Open Access is occurring and encourages specific discussion that will be most effective locally. We invite the community to help us translate this prompt into new languages at bit.ly/translateoaweek

“Effectively communicating the tangible benefits that Open Access provides is essential for open to become the default in both policy and practice,” said Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC. “This year’s theme will help focus discussions during Open Access Week on those benefits of openness that are most compelling locally—whether that’s increasing citation counts, enabling anyone to learn from the latest scholarship, or accelerating the translation of research into economic gains—and encourage action to realize these benefits.

Last year’s “Open in action” theme encouraged all stakeholders to take concrete steps to make their own work more openly available and encourage others to do the same—from posting pre-prints in a repository to pledging to educate colleagues about Open Access. The 2017 theme will help build on that emphasis on action by identifying the end goals Open Access can enable and encouraging individuals and institutions to take steps to achieve those goals.

International Open Access Week is a global, community-driven week of action to open up access to research. The event is celebrated by individuals, institutions and organizations across the world. The official hashtag of Open Access Week is #OAweek. We also invite the community to use the hashtag #OpenInOrderTo to start an online conversation about the benefits of an open system of communicating scholarship.

SPARC®, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, is a global coalition committed to making Open the default for research and education. SPARC empowers people to solve big problems and make new discoveries though the adoption of policies and practices that advance Open Access, Open Data, and Open Education. Learn more at sparcopen.org.